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20 March 2011

William Kendall Mystery

The only confirmed information I have about William C. Kendall is the following:

Name: William Chauney Kendall

Father of 2 children

Born: Shelbyville, Indiana (1900 or 1901)

I have two birth certificates that each list him as the father. Both certificates indicate that he was from Shelbyville, Indiana. One of them has his "usual occupation" listed as a farmer; the other one has him listed as a U.S. Marine.

Aside from the above details, the only other information I have about him is unconfirmed. So far, I have been unable to locate any other official documents about him.

I contacted the Shelby County Health Department (Indiana) and discovered that they have a record of a male Kendall born on 2 Nov 1900. This could be the right Kendall, but I'm still uncertain. His father's name is listed as George; the mother is only listed as "Unknown Williams" (odd, isn't it?).

The research that I have since uncovered (census records, mostly) about various George Kendall's from Indiana (during the right time period) indicate that none of them appear to be a match as the father of William C. Kendall. I'm basing this on the names of family members listed on census records (not one William C. among them).

Information on this man is scarce, at best, but every little scrap that I find just leads to another dead end. My next step is the NC State Archives to see if any marriage records turn up. I know that at least two of his children were born in NC, so the odds are at least halfway decent that he was married here (I know; he could have gotten married on an island somewhere, but I'm allowed to hope).

6 comments:

I found your blog via Geneabloggers and wanted to day welcome to the blogsphere! I'm active with the NCGenWeb project and added your blog to our NC Genealogy 2.0 page at http://www.ncgenweb.us/nc-genealogy-2-0. Please don't hesitate to let me know if we can help you in any way.

There is a Wm C. Kendall born 2 Nov 1900 in Shelyville Indiana, listed on the passenger list of SS President McKinley out of Shanghai & arriving in Seattle in 1927. Hope this helps.Regards,Theresa (Tangled Trees)

That record has helped me to add another piece to the puzzle (and thanks again for being kind enough to share it with me!). Every bit of information certainly helps, especially since it's been so challenging for me to find any official records for him.